Kelly Sommers
Kelly's Village

First post:
Mar 16, 2017 Latest post:
Feb 22, 2018

On February 22, I went for my routine mammo in the Netherlands. I had been feeling something “different”, so I went that that appointment with concern. I was right. The mammo was followed by an ultrasound, a biopsy and a quick escort to the oncology department. The doctor there advised that, although the biopsy was not completed, they were almost certain that what they had found was cancerous.

Three hours later, our family was en route to Amsterdam to get on a plane for our already scheduled trip home to New Jersey (what a coincidence, huh?!). Two days after being home, Pete and I made the decision for me to stay in the USA for treatment. This began the rat-race of getting all the reports sent from the Netherlands, translated and finding a doctor who would see me quickly. I was lucky enough to find Dr. Saksena at Overlook, who after hearing my story, put me on her schedule without even having the reports in hand yet.

On Thursday, March 16 I will be having a lumpectomy with Dr. Mandel (Cranford High School grad, by the way!). He feels the tumor is contained and not yet in my lymphnodes, so his guess is that it is only in Stage 1, but we will not know for sure until after the surgery. After this is completed, a chemo and radiation schedule will be set.

So many of you have reached out to see how you can help, whether it is by providing food, taking care of the boys, or just being an ear to listen. While I appreciate it tremendously, it is overwhelming. I feel like I spend my days texting messages and feeling guilty about not returning phone calls, so I figure this is the best way to let everyone know what’s going on. Thanks to Jen and Michelle for the suggestion!

Thank you everyone. I do believe that this is going to “take a village”. I’m grateful to have you be part of my village!